🦴 Musculoskeletal & Dermatology🟢 BasicUpper Limb Anatomy

Wrist Joint and Carpal Bones

The joint between the forearm and the hand and the small carpal bones that make it, allowing the many movements of the wrist.

Key points

The wrist (radiocarpal) joint is where the lower end of the radius meets the first row of carpal bones, allowing bending, straightening and side-to-side movement.
There are eight carpal bones in two rows of four, and the scaphoid is the one most often broken in a fall on the outstretched hand.
A broken scaphoid may fail to heal because its blood supply enters from one end and can be cut off by the fracture.
The carpal bones form an arch, bridged by a ligament, making the carpal tunnel through which the median nerve passes.
The lower end of the radius is the site of a common wrist fracture, the Colles fracture, in older people who fall.

Memory trick

The wrist is the radius with the proximal carpal row; eight carpal bones in two rows; the scaphoid breaks in a fall (poor blood supply, so non-union); the carpal arch forms the carpal tunnel (median nerve); Colles fracture at the radius.

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🦴 Musculoskeletal & Dermatology🟢 BasicUpper Limb Anatomy

Wrist Joint and Carpal Bones

The joint between the forearm and the hand and the small carpal bones that make it, allowing the many movements of the wrist.

Key points

The wrist (radiocarpal) joint is where the lower end of the radius meets the first row of carpal bones, allowing bending, straightening and side-to-side movement.
There are eight carpal bones in two rows of four, and the scaphoid is the one most often broken in a fall on the outstretched hand.
A broken scaphoid may fail to heal because its blood supply enters from one end and can be cut off by the fracture.
The carpal bones form an arch, bridged by a ligament, making the carpal tunnel through which the median nerve passes.
The lower end of the radius is the site of a common wrist fracture, the Colles fracture, in older people who fall.

Memory trick

All of Anatomy More Musculoskeletal & Dermatology